I asked about it as well. Melanie told me there is zero interest in making it work. However, if someone provided a patch, they might take it. Personally, I think it's a bit hypocritical to, on the one hand, say "opensim has to be just like SL" while, on the other hand, declining to add SL features you don't like.

Currently with 0.8.1 vs 0.8.0.x the privacy icon now appears at the top of the viewer which it did not in prior releases. Although as stated above it still does not function, that now appears above and you cannot turn it off. Is there a reason why it now appears and didn't in prior releases? (see image above).